How To Write A Successful Research Paper: Citing Rules

Writing a research paper is a demanding task for most of the students. They do not understand the exact format and structure for their paper because they are new to it. They do not really know what the best ways to write a research paper are. Most of the times, the teacher will give specific instructions to the students to help them write their paper. Students need to stick to these guidelines if they want to create a research paper that will impress their teachers. Some students struggle with the research paper because they are not familiar with the subject. Others have problems because they need to cite all the information they take from the internet or any other source. This requires the student to have a good knowledge of the citing rules and regulations.

It is important for you to understand that the teacher needs you to write a paper following a certain standard. Most of the times they will ask you to follow a universally accepted formatting standard for your paper. You can easily find these formats and their samples on their official websites or guidebooks. If the teacher needs you to format your paper in a custom manner then you need to listen closely to the instructions and follow them when you are about to format your paper. It is very important for your paper to follow the exact formatting style that the teacher has asked because they have specified it for a reason. Formatting will help the teachers in checking and comparing your papers. They do not have a single paper to mark and it will save efforts if all the papers follow the exact same style. Even if you put much effort in creating your paper but miss the formatting you might lose certain marks. The teacher has the liberty to reject or approve your paper based on how closely you follow the instructions.

If you are to focus on the citation section, it is very important for you to understand that each formatting style has its own rules and regulations. The most common formatting styles are the American Psychological Association, the MLA, the AMA, and the Chicago style. The most popular styles are the APA and MLA, where APA is used to cite papers related to psychology and other general science subjects while MLA is preferable for mathematics and physics papers.

Now you need to either read all the directions for the style you are following and see how to include in-text citations. You need to take notes to understand better.